Frank Thomas can relate to some of the struggles of his former White Sox teammates.
Playing for his third team in three seasons, Thomas admitted he’s not displaying the same patience he showed in 16 seasons with the Sox and last year with Oakland, though he did hit his eighth home run of the season Thursday night off Mark Buehrle.
“People are working around me,” said Thomas, is hitting .223 with 34 strikeouts. “[Pitchers] just never give in. Still, I’ve been frustrated swinging out of the strike zone a lot. I just want to get off to a good start with this team, and we have so many good hitters in this lineup. You have to take one hitter out of the lineup, and I’m the guy they’ve taken out.”
Thomas noticed opponents are employing the same tactics with Sox designated hitter Jim Thome, who has 34 walks in 28 games.
“You have to take your walks,” said Thomas, who has had 10 seasons with 100 or more walks and 33 in 52 games this year.
“It’s hard to take two walks a day because this isn’t what I had in mind this time in my career. You want to be aggressive, and my average is so low because I haven’t been taking my walks. I should have had more two or three weeks ago, but I was swinging at 3-1 and 2-0 pitches out of the zone and making outs.”
Thomas admitted it’s special to play the Sox but that some of the emotion has worn off. Nevertheless, he’s not surprised by their 24-25 start.
“They’ve made a lot of changes to that team,” Thomas said. “It’s not the same team as 2005, a lot of different personnel.
“They decided to go with a lot of young guys in the bullpen and everywhere else, so they’re taking their bumps and bruises like everyone else.”
Guillen targets himself
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen kept the bull’s-eye on himself Thursday night, one day after angrily saying he should be fired if team officials believe he’s not correctly handling an underachieving team.
“Obviously, we’re not playing the way we should be playing, and I blame myself,” Guillen told a beehive of reporters. “I don’t care who anyone else blames, I blame myself because I’m the one who is supposed to put those guys in position to win.
“I’m not going to take credit when we do good and then all of a sudden we’re not doing good and I step out. No, I’m here. I’m not going to hide from anybody.”
Guillen said his threat to make changes Wednesday after a 7-6 loss at Minnesota was just to “send a message,” adding that any changes would be left to general manager Ken Williams.
Before the game, Guillen said struggling reliever Mike MacDougal would stay in a set-up role despite his inconsistency.
Extra innings
For the second consecutive series, San Francisco had a scout in attendance. … Yankees prospect Mitch Hilligoss of Windsor, Ill., extended his hitting streak to 37 games with a leadoff home run Thursday night for Class A Charleston against Columbus. That tied the longest hitting streak in the minors since Sox coach Joey Cora accomplished the feat in 1989 for Triple-A Las Vegas. “I remember when it was broken, we played a doubleheader in Albuquerque,” Cora said. “In my last at-bat, they intentionally walked me. And [their] manager was Kevin Kennedy.” … Guillen backed the oral distraction of New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez that caused Toronto third baseman Howie Clark to miss a pop Wednesday. “I don’t care what people say,” Guillen said. “Why not do it? He’ll do everything he can to win games, and they need that.”
